Mosimane humble in Sundowns’ first victory over Al Ahly but points out Egyptians may have disrespected them

07 April 2019 - 12:04 By Mahlatse Mphahlele
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Pitso Mosimane (l) celebrates with goalscorer Phakamani Mahlambi during the 2018/19 CAF Champions League football match between Sundowns and Al Ahly at Lucas Moripe Stadium, Pretoria on 06 April 2019.
Pitso Mosimane (l) celebrates with goalscorer Phakamani Mahlambi during the 2018/19 CAF Champions League football match between Sundowns and Al Ahly at Lucas Moripe Stadium, Pretoria on 06 April 2019.
Image: ©Gavin Barker/BackpagePix

After the comprehensive 5-0 demolition of Al Ahly in the first leg of the Caf Champions League quarter-final on Saturday‚ humble Mamelodi Sundonwns coach Pitso Mosimane admitted he didn’t expect to win by that margin.

The Brazilians overcame early jitters to hand the African club of the century one of their heaviest defeats in the competition and put themselves in a good position to progress to the semi-finals for the second time in five years.

“If there is any one of us who will tell you that they expected this result‚ they will not be telling the truth‚” Mosimane said voicing his respect for Al Ahly and their well-travelled Uruguayan coach Martín Lasarte.

“I didn’t expect a result like this‚ Al Ahly is a big team and they are the team of the century but these things happen in football. As must as the margin of the win is huge‚ it is important from me as a coach to have humility and respect to the opponent.”

“It is very rare for Sundowns to score so many goals in the Champions League. We are a small team that was only established in 1974 and we all know when Al Ahly was established and you can see the number of stars they have on their badge," said Pitso.

When you have a win like this‚ it is history for our club and it will go to our archives.”

“It means a lot to the club‚ the fans and to me personally but humility is important. I must respect the coach because is he can put his CV here I will hide mine.

"He is a big coach and I must give him respect because one day is going to happen to me.

"One day our children will know that Sundowns beat Al Ahly 5-0 here and it may never happen again in this lifetime. I think they disrespect us because they are a big and this was a surprise to them.”

Sundowns players‚ technical staff and president Patrice Motsepe celebrated wildly with their fans at the final whistle and Mosimane said it was enjoy a rare feat.

“I am a professional and I understand this space. I will make sure that I keep humility in the team but we allowed a little bit of celebrations and excitement.

"We are babies in this space and this may not come again in our lifetime‚ so why not celebrate. It is Al Ahly and it was a little bit of celebration but not too much.”

“We played very well‚ we scored the goals‚ we controlled the game and we played according to the plan. I was a little bit worried that if we will have the legs for a 3pm kickoff following a big game against Orlando Pirates on Monday that was hectic for us in terms of the demands on the body.”

“But it is the same thing that I told you that you can’t play for Sundowns if you don’t look after yourself off the field because the schedule is heavy.

"We had to make sure that everything was in detail in our preparation for this game.

"Sometimes when we win like this‚ as coaches we sound like we are good but to be honest we did our homework and everything came out the way we expected. There is no luck‚ we understand how they play and who are the people in their team.”

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